THE FLUTE AND THE HOUSE,

DOING THE ARCHITECTURE OF MAKING

Leonidas Koutsoumpos
PhD Student and Design Tutor
Architecture
School of Arts, Culture and Environment
University of Edinburgh
20 Chambers Street, EH1 1JZ, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
L.Koutsoumpos@sms.ed.ac.uk

Book chapter in: The Politics of Making, edited by Mark Swenarton, Igea Troiani
and Helena Webster, pp. 105-16. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2007
(ISBN: 9780415431019) pp. 105-116

INTRODUCTION
The title of the 2006 AHRA conference, The Politics of Making: Theory, Practice,
Product seems to adopt the established Aristotelian categories and moreover, the
correspondence of the conferences three strands, being divided into Theory, Practice
and Product, with the three basic types of Aristotelian knowledge,1 makes this standpoint
explicit. In terms of these categorical distinctions, according to David Ross,2 the science
of Politics for Aristotle, is divided into two folds: ethics and politics. Ethics refer to the
appropriate way of life of the individual, while politics refer to the social interaction
between individuals. Nevertheless, Ross also suggests that the two folds in Aristotle are
intertwined: ethics are social and politics are ethical.3 Nikolaus Lobckowicz argues
further that Aristotles philosophical analysis of political life is also responsible for the
contemporary understanding of the term practice as doing and subsequently to the

David, Ross, Aristotle, 5th ed, University Paperbacks, London, New York: Methuen and Barnes &
Noble, 1964 (1923), p. 187
2
ibid. p. 187
3
ibid. p. 187

understanding of theory as an opposing pole. 4 Under this light, the title of the
conference makes an implicit identification of architecture as a form of making.
This essay will discuss the origins of this affiliation, will challenge the above categories
and will argue for the possibility of seeing architecture as a form of doing. By
revisiting Aristotles Ethical writings, I will focus on the relationship between doing
and making in the context of architecture and I will discuss the problematic of this
distinction. Finally, the essay will discuss the ethical dimension of politics as it appears
in the realm of architecture and will emphasise the importance of doing, especially in
architectural design education.

MAKING AND DOING; PRAXIS AND POESIS; THE HOUSE AND THE FLUTE
The analysis of the ethics of politics in the context of architecture will focus on line
1140a 1 of Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics where he makes a very interesting comment
concerning architecture as a form of making:
Hence the rational quality concerned with doing is different from the rational quality
concerned with making; nor is one of them a part of the other, for doing is not a form of
making, nor making a form of doing. Now architectural skill, for instance, is an art,
But as doing and making are distinct, it follows that Art, being concerned with making, is
not concerned with doing.5 [my italics]

In the original text one reads instead of doing, the ancient Greek term praxis ()
and instead of making, the term posis (). The refined distinction between the
two ancient Greek terms is not easily rendered in the English language6 , but the
difference between the words doing and making comes as close as possible.
Aristotle several times opposes praxis to posis7 basing his argument on the difference
of the aim or end (telos) of each activity. In this perspective, posis or making aims at

Nikolaus Lobkowicz, Theory and Practice : History of a Concept from Aristotle to Marx, Notre Dame
[Ind.]: University of Notre Dame Press, 1967, p. 3
5
Aristotle, 1934, Nicomachean Ethics, ed. H. Rackham. Harvard University Press and William
Heinemann Ltd., Online at Perseus Digital Library, Available HTTP: http://perseus.mpiwgberlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1177b+1 (accessed 15 March 2003), 1140a 1
6
Lobkowicz, Theory and Practice, p.9
7
Nic. Eth. VI,4,1140 a 2 ff;5,1140 b 3 ff.: Mag. Moral. I, 34, 1197 a 3 ff.; II 12 1211 b 27 ff.; Pol. I, 2,
1254 a 6

an end different from the act of making, while the end of praxis, or doing, is nothing
else but the very act of doing itself. Praxis and posis are two of three kinds of
activities (energeiai) which are, according to Aristotle, in order of importance: theoria,
posis and praxis. Quite often praxis and posis have been conflated and seen as dual
aspects of one side of a coin, the opposite side of which is considered to be theoria,
meaning theory or contemplation. Elsewhere8, I have discussed the problems of seeing
practice and theory in contrast and not in relation to each other, arguing that the
operations of praxis and theoria are, in reality, inextricable. Theoria is not in any way a
set of rules or laws that prescribe practice in advance, but it is participation in it.9
Aristotle uses the term praxis in order to generally refer to activities of various forms of
life. Nevertheless, he refers mainly to the life of the free man and the actions taken in
political and ethical life, especially the sciences and arts. In ancient Greece the term
praxis did not have the same meaning as it has in our times. Nowadays, praxis is usually
affiliated with the mere application of abstract ideas, rules and principles preconceived
by theory. However, such a meaning would, in ancient Greece, have been signified by
the term techn. Praxis was in fact an autonomous activity achieved in accomplishing
the very action in itself, without aiming at a goal that is distinct from the action. As
Richard Coyne and Adrian Snodgrass puts it: For the Greeks, praxis in contrast to
techn, is an activity involving judgment. It is the making of ethical decisions by the
exercise of phronesis, that is, practical reasonableness, acting by way of tacit
understanding gained from the experience and within a context of ethical behaviour, by
which was meant behaviour that is conducive to the well-being of oneself and others.10
The term posis is analysed by Aristotle in a separate book, the famous Poetics. A
central concept in his understanding of the various arts is the term mimsis, the idea that
all arts are ways of some kind of imitation. In this book Aristotle refers mainly to
tragedy, play, music and the various kinds of poetry, making only minor comments on
8

Leonidas Koutsoumpos, "The Switch of Ethics and the Reflective Architect: In-between Practice and
Theory," Research Paper presented at the Conference: Reflections on Creativity: Exploring the Role of
Theory in Creative Practices, organized by the University of Dundee, in Dundee, at 21-22 April, 2006
9
Richard Coyne and Adrian Snodgrass, Interpretation in Architecture, London, New York: Routledge
Taylor and Francis Group, 2006, p. 112 [italics in the original]
10
ibid. p. 112

arts like painting and sculpture and unfortunately he does not make a single reference to
architecture. Despite not making explicit reference to architecture in Poetics, Aristotle
often invoked the activity of building a house as an example of praxis in his various
ethical treatises. Especially in Magna Moralia, his minor (despite the title) work on
ethics, he gives a very interesting example of the difference between praxis and posis.
In line 1211b 27 Aristotle gives the art of building as an example of making in contrast
to flute-playing as an example of doing (Figure 1.):
in some [sciences] the end and the activity are the same, and there is not any other
end beyond the activity; for instance, to the flute player the activity and end are the same
(for to play the flute is both his end and his activity); but not to the art of housebuilding
(for it has a different end beyond the activity);11

Figure 1: Playing the Flute (praxis) and Building a House (posis)

In this example Aristotle suggests that the art of building is a form of making because
the end of the activity is something different from the activity itself. Building a house is
a posis because there is an aim - the production of the house- that stands beyond the
11

Aristotle, "Magna Moralia," In The Works of Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea; by W.D. Ross, Magna
Moralia ; by St. George Stock, Ethica Eudemia, De Virtutibus Et Vitiis; by J. Solomon, edited by W. D.
Ross, London: Oxford University Press, 1915, 1211b 27

building activity itself. Moreover, building a house cannot be regarded as finished action
before the outcome, the house itself, is finished. On the other hand Aristotle suggests
that playing the flute is a form of doing, because there is no end beyond the activity of
mere playing. The pressing of ones fingertips against the holes of the flute is praxis
because the activity produces no obvious physically tangible outcome, like in the case of
building a house. For this reason Aristotle implies that one can stop playing the flute at
any time without leaving something incomplete.
ARCHITECTURE IN-BETWEEN MAKING AND DOING
All of the above categorizations seem to provide a solid body of thought until the point
that one tries to fit architecture (in its contemporary understanding) into this scheme. At
first glance it appears obvious that, according to the previous categories, architecture is
on the side of posis, as an art of making, close to the activity of building the house.
But upon closer observation things are not so straightforward.
First of all, architecture today is very far from being simply the activity of building a
house. From the Renaissance onwards, the architect has increasingly come to be seen to
operate beyond the level of the builder. The architect became an educated person whose
skills and knowledge were acquired not in the construction site or the Lodges of the Free
Masons, but in specialised schools. 12 Academia Platonica, Acadmie Royale d
Architecture, cole Polytechnique, cole Royale des Beaux Arts, Bauhaus, Illinois
Institute of Technology, Cooper Union, Architectural Association are maybe the most
important stops in the journey of architectural education over the last 500 years that has
consolidated and reinforced the differentiation of the architect from the builder.
Architecture, as part of the process of this journey, has developed its own theory; texts
which try to find the appropriate language to narrate a meaning for the building of
houses. More and more, architecture has been associated with the creation of spatial
representations13 which will actually be built later by someone else, rather than the
12

Geoffrey Broadbend, "Architectural Education," In Educating Architects, edited by Martin Pearce and
Maggie Toy, p.p. 10-23, London: Academy Editions, 1995
13
A very interesting analysis of architecture as representation and symbol is made in Chapter 7 of Harries
book The Ethical Function of Architecture. Especially at p. 99 he says To understand the
representational character of a particular building, we have to understand just how it pictures, that is,

straightforward action of building the house itself. But the question still remains: is
architecture a form of praxis or posis?. Do we do architecture or make architecture?,
Is the activity of architecture (as a verb) closer to building a house or playing the flute?
According to the Aristotelian definitions the answer should be found at the production of
an outcome. As I mentioned above, if there is a production of an artefact, then this is not
the building (or generally the space) itself, it is rather the representation of the space that
an architect creates. The architects job is to create conventional drawings: plans,
sections, elevations, as well as models (physical and digital-nowadays-) and images or
videos that describe space. But beyond that, architects also produce texts, either to
accompany their images or to create technical reports and sometimes they create texts
narrating the history of the buildings of the past or even theories on how architecture
should be built or how we should understand what architecture is. According to this
description of architectural production, architecture appears to be a form of posis, but
still one could ask is this not the case of the musician?. Does not the musician produce
artefacts like musical scores or texts about music or even material evidence of music
such as tapes, LPs or CDs? An argument against this view could be that this is the job
of the composer and maybe not of the virtuoso of the flute. In this case one could argue
that the job of the architect is equal to that of the composer who is the mastermind
behind the music: both roles consist in creating something new, something that did not
exist before it was thought and then put down on paper.
But if creation is simply the ideas that come into ones mind, then the material artefacts
that are the outcome of such a creative process are just coincidental appearances that
simply help one to remember ideas. Indeed, it is perfectly possible to imagine an
architect with a great memory and developed organisational skills having a vision of a
building and being able to supervise the construction without having to draw up plans. In
this case, the architectural outcome that is actually created is not the material products of
the architects job, but the thoughts that he creates about the final product, the building
(or the real space generally). Consequently, this means that architecture is praxis and not
posis, since the products of its outcome are purely coincidental.
the form of representation employed Works of architecture represent buildings. Karsten Harries,
The Ethical Function of Architecture, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997

A more complicated argument, according to the Aristotelian definitions has to do with

the existence of an aim or telos that is beyond the activity itself. Again, in the case of
architecture, it originally seems that to relate to posis, since it aims at an outcome that is
beyond the mere thinking of it or the action of drawing lines on a paper (or, nowadays,
clicking a mouse on a mouse pad, or maybe in the future, gesturing in front of a screen).
One could say that this aim is the outcome of the building that the architect imagines in a
specific place that is going to be erected. Every drawn line represents more than the line
itself, aiming to or inferring a wall, a window or a piece of specific technical information
about the creation of the building.
Similarly then, the playing of the flute aims at something that goes beyond the mere
pressing of ones fingertips against the flutes holes. The flute player aims for the
creation of a certain atmosphere, the re-creation of the whole of the piece of music.
Contrary to what Aristotle argues, when the flutist finishes playing a concert, something
has being created through the ears of the audience, in their heart or their mind and this
thing they carry with them on their way back home14. Moreover, if the flutist stops
playing in the middle of the song then one feels the incompleteness in the same sense as
when a wall is left half built.

Furthermore, suggesting that architecture always aims for spatial realisation is simply
not true. Very often architectural projects are left as drawings without losing any of their
importance or glamour. For example, most probably everyone knows Tatlins monument
tower for the 3rd International (Figure 2), despite that no one has actually really visited it,
as it was never realised physically. Again, one could say that it could actually have been
built in Petrograd, as originally designed, and certainly Tatlin would have been very
happy to see his vision realised. But again, there are other architects who have never
really intended or cared about the actual realisation of their projects. Etienne-Louis
Boulle, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, most of Futurists and Constructivists architects, as
well as contemporary architects like Zaha Hadid and Greg Lynn, have an ambiguous
14

Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the Invisible, Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University
Press, 1968, p. 151. See also Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time Vol. 1: Swann's Way. C. K. Scott
Moncreiff & T. Kilimartin Trans. D. J. Enright Revision, London: Vintage, 2002, p. 262

relationship with making their spaces real. Does this mean that they are just doing
architecture without making it?

Figure 2 : Model of Tatlins Monument for the 3rd Communist International

Finally, one could wonder how playing the flute can be a mere praxis when it has a
poetic affect on people, makes them feel inspired, takes them to a world of emotions and
dreams. Similarly, how can the building of a house be related to posis when it is
restricted by the mundane and practical implications of client needs, construction details
and planning permissions? All these arguments and questions presented above challenge
the straightforward connection of architecture to posis and the activity of making,
providing at the same time an opening from where one could imagine architecture as
praxis and the activity of doing.

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN EDUCATION, IN-BETWEEN PRAXIS AND

POESIS
Stepping backwards, for a moment, in order to see the wider concept of Politics, I feel
that the question that underlies this collection of essays is how shall we make
architecture in the context of 21st century politics?. Here, I wish to argue that the ethics
of politics in architecture cannot take place away from the practical aspects of creation.
Especially in architectural education the wider question transforms15 into a more specific
one: how shall we teach architecture or under the conditions of 21st century politics?
Undoubtedly, answering this question involves the reappraisal of the metaphorical
journey of architectural education over time that I already mentioned. In order to
envision the education of the 21st century one has to understand what happened to
architectural education of the 20th century and even further back to the past in order to
meet the Aristotelian philosophical origins; not as separate, disconnected stops, but
rather as interlinked continuities. Nevertheless, such a detailed study is beyond the scope
of this essay, so here, I can only give a hint, as an example, about the romantic revisiting
of the Gothic by Ruskin and the influence that this had for the development of design
education during the modern movement.16 Interrelations like this build a web whose
threads allow us to grasp links and continuities in a wide spectrum of the history of
design education, in order to project the future.
Having this historic framework in mind I will focus on an important contemporary
thinker, that emphasises the ethical link between architecture and its education: Alberto

15

All Art deals with bringing some thing into existence; and to pursue an art means to study how to
bring into existence a thing which may either exist or not, and the efficient cause of which lies in the
maker and not in the thing made Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1140a 1 [my italics]
16
Since the paradigmatic shift from the Medieval times to Renaissance, almost every historical movement
that tried to challenge established orthodoxies goes back into re-problematising this shift. Maybe the
most obvious example being the way that Ruskin conceptualized romantically The Nature of the
Gothic both as outward form and as the character of the builders (Sweranton 1989, p.30) and the chain
of influences that John Ruskins thought caused to William Morris challenging the industrial
production and the division of labour and Lethabys establishment of schools of practical architecture
like the Central School of Arts and Crafts (Swenarton 1989, p. 111). One can also see the continuation
of this influence, through Muthesious, to Gropius and the establishment of Bauhaus, one of the most
famous schools of architecture for having touched the fundamentals of doing and making (Saint, 1983,
p. 122).

Perez-Gomez and his paper titled Ethics and Poetics in Architectural Education.17
Perez-Gomez, in his overall theoretical work and in this paper in specific, argues against
the traditional techno-romantic request for ready-to-work practitioners. His reference to
poetics is made explicit through a metaphor that suggests that architecture is like a
poem18, because it occurs in experience. A poems meaning, like architectures meaning,
is inseparable from the experience of the poem itself. In another analogy that refers to
poetics Perez-Gomez says that Architectural beauty, like erotic love, burns itself into
our soul; it inspires fear and reverence through a poetic image, one that affects us
primarily though our vision, and yet is fully sensuous, synaesthetic;...19 Subsequently,
architectural theory is rooted in mythic or poetic stories20 and its main concern is
ethical, with its purpose being to find appropriate language (in the form of stories)
capable of modulating a project in view of ethical imperatives, always specific to each
task at hand. Theory in this sense is related to a critical thinking which is often
underestimated by pragmatic practitioners that prioritize training for work over critical
thinking in school, ...[contribute] significantly toward denying architecture, from the
inside, its potential ethical ground.21
The way that Perez-Gomez uses the terms posis and praxis deliberately lacks the
established Aristotelian categorical distinction. This fact is even explicit when he says
that [o]nce a modern philosophical theory is understood as being primarily driven by
ethics, as practical philosophy in the tradition of Aristotles phronesis, techne poesis or
practice appears as process, as a fully embodied, personal engagement with the crafts.22
His reference to phronesis, or practical wisdom, brings architecture to a critical point of
conciliation between praxis and posis that allows the two terms to meet beyond their
categorical differences. Nevertheless, posis seems to be privileged in Perez-Gomezs
overall argument.23
17

Alberto Prez-Gmez, "Ethics and Poetics in Architectural Education -I," SCROOPE- Cambridge
Architecture Journal, 16, 2004
18
ibid. p.26
19
ibid. p.26
20
ibid. p.26
21
ibid. p.27
22
ibid. p.31
23
For the dangers of the aesthetic aspect of creation that I think usually is related to posis, Harries quotes
Bullough saying: aesthetic experience has a negative, inhibitory aspect -the cutting out of the
practical side of things and of our practical attitude to them- and a positive side -the elaboration of the

10

Figure 3: The design studio as place of praxis

Here, I would like to stress the importance of praxis in architectural education.

Although, I agree with Perez-Gomezs overall argument that architectural education
should go beyond the simplistic demand for professional practice, I believe that praxis
provides even stronger armour to fight against such techno-romantic views. Praxis, as
Perez-Gomez acknowledges, is much more than technical expertise; it concerns values,
articulated through the stories that ground acts and deeds in particular culture. This
practical wisdom is usually of the order of oral transmission, rather that of textual
information.24
Nevertheless, phronesis comes directly from the Ethical discourse of praxis25 and it
relates to a wisdom that stands beyond scientific operations and technical skills.
experience on the basis created by the inhibitory action of distance. [Edward Bullough, Physical
Distance as a Factor in Art and an Esthetic Principle, in A Modern Book of Esthetics: An anthology,
ed. Melvin Rader (New York: Holt, 1952), p. 404] Harries, The Ethical Function of Architecture, p.
122-123
24
Prez-Gmez, "Ethics and Poetics in Architectural Education -I". p.27 [my italics]
25
A connection between phronesis and posis, different from that of Perez-Gomez can be found at John
Wall, "Phronesis, Poetics and Moral Creativity," Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 6, 2003: pp. 31741

11

Standing in the middle of the climax of the Aristotelian intellectual virtues26, phronesis
keeps the balance between the practical logic and the theoretical intuition. Recently,
philosophers like Hans Georg Gadamer and educationists like Shaun Gallagher27 have
emphasized on the role that phronesis can play in interpersonal understanding and
interpretation. For this, as I have argued elsewhere, 28 the role that phronesis can play in
the design studio is critical in order to understand it as the primarily locus of ethics in
architectural conduct.

Figure 4: The praxis of drawing a line can reach such point of skill that can refer
to eupraxia (doing well).

26

For Aristotle phronesis is placed between Scientific Knowledge (Epstm) and Art (Tecn) in the one
side, and Intuition (Nous) and Theoretical wisdom (Sofia) in the other. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics,
Book VI, 1139b
27
For Gadamer phronesis is a key to understand the process of interpretation. He clarifies the difference
between technical and moral knowledge and he claims that phronesis involves a kind of self-knowledge
that is not present in technological knowledge. Gallagher also argues that phronesis applies to situations
that resembles to a mystery rather than a problem (using the terms as defined by Gabriel Marce) in a
way that the person cannot stand out of a given situation in order to see it in an objective way. Shaun
Gallagher, Hermeneutics and Education, Edited by Dennis J. Schmidt, Suny Series in Contemporary
Continental Philosophy, New York, Albany: State University of New York, 1992, p.152
Moreover, in The Postmodern Condition, a concept of phronesis developed by Lyotard appears
as the only way out of the paralogy of the postmodernism. Phronesis as a purely prescriptive, case by
case judging, without appeal to theoretical criteria, stays independent of any big narrative. And despite
the disagreements for its radical role there is no doubt for the importance that it has in our times. Shaun
Gallagher, "The Place of Phronesis in Postmodern Hermeneutics," Philosophy Today, no. 37 1993
(1990), pp. 298-305
28
Leonidas Koutsoumpos, "Heterotopic Metaphors of the Design Studio: Bazaar, Agora Gymnasium or
Dojo? ," Research Paper presented at the Conference: XXII World Congress of Architecture 'Cities:
Grand Bazaar of Architectures', organised by the UIA (International Union of Architects), in Istanbul
at 3-7 July, 2005

12

Another critical term that can be adopted from the arsenal of praxis is that of eupraxia.
Eupraxia is a step beyond the mere doing, referring to the notion of doing something
well.29 This action that refers to a notion of properness, allows uplifting the simplest
activity, like building a wall, or drawing a line (figure 4) to a level of creativity that
allows the exercise of a skill that goes beyond the skill itself into the realm of
appropriateness. This notion of appropriateness is very close to what Donald Shn
suggest as skilfulness that becomes part of the routine of doing something well. 30 For
this, eupraxia as an aim sets in motion a personal ethos that is closely connected to
phronesis. While at the same time the developing and application of phronesis results in
doing something well, which is eupraxia.
Furthermore, the phronetic procedure of doing architecture as practice31 retains issues of
ethics that by definition (ethos = addiction) are implicit by having to do with customs,
dispositions and the way that usually things take place in practice. For this, architectural
education is not just a marginal area of architectural conduct, an introductory preparation
for the real practice that will follow up. Especially the design studio, the core of
architectural education, becomes an extremely important place where the customs and
the dispositions will be acquired and form the basis of phronesis that will accompany all
the other future areas of architectural conduct.
Apart from this implicit notion of ethics there is another aspect equally important that is
explicit and allows us to return to the wider concept of Politics. Architecture as praxis
29

The point here is to distinguish activities and disciplines which are primarily a form of making
(building a house, writing a play) from doing proper, where the end or telos of the activity is not
primarily the production of an artefact, but rather performing the particular activity in a certain way, i.e.
performing the activity well: eupraxia. Praxis in this more restricted and sense signifies the
disciplines and activities predominant in mans ethical and political life. Richard Bernstein, Praxis and
Action: Contemporary Philosophies of Human Activity, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
1971, p. ix-x [italics in the original]
30
the starting condition of reflection-in-action is the repertoire of routinized responses that skilful
practitioners bring to their practice. This is what I call the practitioners knowing-in-action. Donald,
Shn, The Design Studio: An Exploration of its Traditions and Potentials, London: RIBA Publications
Limited, 1985, p. 24 For other implications of the concept of reflection in action in relationship to the
concept of practice see Koutsoumpos The Switch of Ethics and the Reflective Architect and also
Helena, Webster, The Design Diary: Promoting Reflective Practice in the Design Studio in EAAE,
Transactions on Architectural Education Volume, No.17: Monitoring Architectural Design Education in
European Schools of Architecture, 2004
31
See MacIntyres definition of practice in: Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory,
2nd (Corrected, with Postcript) ed, London: Duckworth, 1985 (1981), p. 187

13

through eupraxia, constantly strives to become aware of its customs and dispositions in
order to become better. Doing architecture is an ethical action that implies drawing lines
properly, by operating within this framework of dispositions. So educating the
architecture of doing, means to be aware that every single line plays a political role in
establishing real boundaries32 and by drawing it one has to take the responsibility of
doing so.

CONCLUSIONS
There are still a number of questions that this essay has opened up but not resolved:
how shall we make architecture and how shall we teach it in the understanding of
politics in the 21st century?, Is the activity of architecture (as a verb) closer to building
a house or playing the flute? and ultimately Is architecture a form of praxis or posis?
The final answers to these questions, if any, definitely lay beyond the scope of this
essay. As I already mentioned before, a careful tracing back in time of the concepts of
making and doing and the various answers given in every society is needed in order to
allow a clearer overview of the historic horizons that define our times. Nevertheless, in
the thesis that has been developed here, I have argued for a new way of seeing
architecture as praxis. Showing the origins of the affiliation of architecture with posis
in the Aristotelian Ethical tradition, I challenged its established categories through the
examples of the house and the flute, thus opening the possibility of seeing architecture as
a form of doing. A major advantage to this line of argument against techno-romantic
notions of architectural education is the armour of phronesis and eupraxia that can be
taken from the arsenal of praxis, avoiding its ambiguous relationship to posis.
Finally, by suggesting we should see architecture as praxis, I am pointing to a process of
doing architecture that challenges the primacy of the poetic aspect of creation, and
focuses to the simple and mundane action of doing architecture in the everyday sense of
the practice. But what I have tried to show here is that such a view of architecture is
beyond the techno-romantic vision of mere progress, efficiency or effectiveness. On the
32

Maurice Lagueux, "Ethics Versus Aesthetics in Architecture," The Philosophical Forum XXXV, no.
2 (2004): 117-33, see p.122

14

contrary, the poetic aspect of making architecture derives from the primary action of
simply doing it and not the other way around.

ACKNOWLDGMENTS
I would like thank Lisa Otty, Yue Zhuang and Keith Ballantyne for their critical
comments and valuable suggestions in various stages of this work and also Andreas
Laudwein and Brenda Anderson for sharing their brilliant photographs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aristotle, 1934, Nicomachean Ethics, ed. H. Rackham. Harvard University Press and William
Heinemann Ltd., Online at Perseus Digital Library, Available HTTP: http://perseus.mpiwgberlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1177b+1 (accessed 15 March 2003)
Aristotle, "Magna Moralia," In The Works of Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea; by W.D. Ross,
Magna Moralia ; by St. George Stock, Ethica Eudemia, De Virtutibus Et Vitiis; by J. Solomon,
edited by W. D. Ross, London: Oxford University Press, 1915
Richard Bernstein, Praxis and Action: Contemporary Philosophies of Human Activity,
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971
Geoffrey Broadbend, "Architectural Education," In Educating Architects, edited by Martin
Pearce and Maggie Toy, p.p. 10-23, London: Academy Editions, 1995
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Playing the Flute (praxis) and Building a House (posis). Synthesis from the photos:
Flute by Andreas Laudwein and Building a Wall (Version 2) by Brenda Anderson
Figure 2. Model of Tatlins Monument for the 3rd Communist International. This photo belongs
to the public domain of Russia. From the Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Online. Available
HTTP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TatlinMonument3int.jpg
Figure 3. The design studio as place of praxis. Photo by the author
Figure 4. The praxis of drawing a line can reach such point of skill that can refer to eupraxia
(doing well). Photo by the author

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